Efficient Resource Allocation for Wireless Multicast

This paper proposes a bandwidth-efficient multicast mechanism for heterogeneous wireless networks. The paper reduces the bandwidth cost of an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast tree by adaptively selecting the cell and the wireless technology for each mobile host to join the multicast group. The mechanism enables more mobile hosts to cluster together and leads to the use of fewer cells to save the scarce wireless bandwidth. Besides, the paths in the multicast tree connecting to the selected cells share more common links to save the wireline bandwidth. The mechanism supports the dynamic group membership and offers mobility of group members. Moreover, the mechanism requires no modification to the current IP multicast routing protocols.